Environmental activist organisation Greenpeace has questioned what Samsung plans to do with the remaining manufactured Galaxy Note7 devices, after production was halted due to fears of explosions.
Greenpeace said the 4.3 million Note7s produced were equivalent to almost 730,000kg of hi-spec technology. About three million are said to have been sold.
That quantity of devices would contain 20 metric tonnes of cobalt, one metric tonne of tungsten, several kg of tantalum, 20 to 60kg of palladium, about 100kg of gold and more than 1000kg of silver, according to a report from Greenpeace and a German research institute.
The report said the 4.3 million Note7s had the equivalent weight of 726.7 tonnes, without taking the chargers into account.
{loadposition sam08}It added that unless separated and disposed of separately, this amounted to:
- Approximately 28 40-foot shipping containers (max load of 40-foot containers is 26.2 tonnes);
- Approximately 122 African elephants (average weight six tonnes); and
- Approximately 512 SM6 vehicles made by Renault Samsung.
If laid edge to edge, the 4.3 million Galaxy Note7s would stretch for 660.5kms, more than twice the distance between Seoul and Busan, the report added. The latter is South Korea's second-largest city.
It said: "Samsung has not officially announced any concrete analysis on the causes of the default seen in the Note7. Most speculation has pointed to the battery as being the main cause.
"Samsung has also yet to detail how it will deal with these phones once it has collected them but did announce it will dispose of all the Note7s produced.
"This means that the majority of the components which are brand new and might be still working fine could be destroyed, leading to the tremendous waste of the materials, energy and labour that went into making these devices."
Greenpeace raised the question of whether Samsung would recycle the phones locally or ship them to one specific location for this purpose.
It also asked how the South Korean conglomerate would ensure that the "precious resources contained in these phones are safely recovered?"
The Note7 was released in early August and reports of explosions first came in on 24 August and began pouring in the following month. After first ordering a recall and offering replacements, Samsung was forced to stop manufacturing the device in October.